An Australian innovation, PolicyPoint was developed over several years with a major international firm in real-life settings.

The need for PolicyPoint was identified in the wake of the corporate collapses of 2001 and 2002, which revealed corporate and individual fraud on an unprecedented scale. As the $multi-million penalties and jail terms were being imposed, calls emerged for business – across the board – to be held to higher levels of accountability.

Businesses began realising that the truly effective governance they needed couldn’t be achieved through regulation alone: it must be supported by an organisational culture of compliance: that is, adherence with the principles of good corporate governance and enterprise risk management.

Most organisations have now taken the essential first step of establishing principles for compliance, governance and risk management, which are made available in corporate policies and procedures.

Up to 70% of people fail to complete online training

The problem is that these corporate mandates – while carefully crafted and widely disseminated through the company intranet – can be largely ignored by employees. In fact, with research showing that up to 70% of people fail to complete online training programs, it’s likely that employees largely fail to read, absorb and regularly refresh their understanding of vital policies and procedures.

Additionally, businesses realise that by ‘not knowing’ which employees have (or have not) reviewed and understood policies, they are at greater risk of exposure to the consequences of non-compliance.

PolicyPoint was developed to resolve these issues. An easy-to-use business service that needs little or no IT support, PolicyPoint is the business equivalent of regularly sitting with your employees to make sure they complete their training, while keeping you up-to-date with those who fail to acquire the knowledge and who need your attention.

PolicyPoint supports leading Australian and international businesses

The service is used by leading legal, financial, manufacturing and government enterprises for a variety of governance, risk, compliance and performance management purposes.

Our valued clients include financial services firm KPMG, consumer goods manufacturer Konica Minolta, diversified construction company Australand, the NSW Government’s Office of Protocol and Special Events, and Fairfield City Council.

PolicyPoint equips companies to meet new regulatory framework

Among responses to the challenging financial conditions that face business in 2009 and beyond – arising from the global financial crisis, which unfolded with unprecedented speed and force – are global calls for further regulatory tightening that help ensure that regulators are not taken by surprise by market trends. What this is likely to mean is that business will be required to demonstrate compliance with new or more strictly enforced regulatory requirements.

Also emerging from the current environment is the clear perception that authorities need to co-ordinate their efforts, both domestically and internationally. Again, the implication for business is tighter or changed levels of compliance.

In this environment, more than ever, enterprises need a tool that ensures their organisation-wide ability to comply with regulatory, business and performance goals. That tool is PolicyPoint.